[NOTE: Because of pending litigation, the name of the client has been omitted.]

83 Year Old Great Grandmother has to File Lawsuit Because of GEICO’s Unfair Claim Practices.

On November 21, 2008 Mrs. Beatrice XXXX was rear ended as she drove her car in Mobile County, Alabama. She was at a complete stop when the driver of the car behind her drove his car into the back of her car. The Mobile Police Department, who investigated the collision, determined the other driver to be at-fault and determined that Ms. XXXX did nothing to cause or contribute to the collision. According to her attorney, Karlos Finley of Moore & Wolfe, Ms. XXXX received soft-tissue injuries which required a trip to the emergency room and some additional follow-up care for soft-tissue injuries. Her total medical bills were a little over $7,200.00. These bills were paid by her health insurance company and her own insurance carrier under the medical payments provisions of her automobile policy. According to Finley, these companies have asserted a subrogation claim for a refund for their payments from any monies recovered by Ms. XXXX in her liability claim against the at-fault driver who is insured by GEICO.

In an attempt to avoid the time and expenses of litigation, after Mrs. XXXX had completed her treatment and was released from her healthcare providers, Mr. Finley prepared a settlement package which consisted of $7,207.50 in total medical charges and began pre-litigation settlement negotiations with GEICO. Those negotiations broke off with GEICO making a best and final offer of $4,700.00 on behalf of their insured with full knowledge that Ms. XXXX’s own insurance company was asserting a subrogation lien of $5,000.00 for Medical Payment benefits afforded her through her automobile insurance policy. Even worse for his client reports Mr. Finley is that it took GEICO over 8 weeks to even begin negotiations after the claim material was submitted.

According to her lawyer, GEICO’s unreasonable settlement offer left his client with no option but to seek full restitution through the legal system and a lawsuit has now been filed against the at-fault driver for his negligence in causing the collision. In Alabama, even though the insurance company may be the one controlling the settlement offers, its their insured who has to be sued in Court. Mr. Finley went on to say, “This pattern of unfair claims handling is nothing new for GEICO. Over the past year we have seen this same pattern time and time again with GEICO. Their offers to settle claims without litigation are so low, that victims must either take a financial loss or proceed with a lawsuit.” In their recent law firm newsletter, Legally Speaking, Moore & Wolfe reported this problem was not just local but apparently a nationwide trend. The newsletter also explained why Alabama law favors insurance companies and allows them to get away with these type of unfair actions.

“I think GEICO assumed Ms. XXXX would not want to suffer the anxiety and stress of litigation and tried to use that to force her to accept an unreasonable settlement offer,” said Finley. He also reports that, “Ms. XXXX has never been in an automobile collision of any kind and has not injured her spine at anytime prior to the collision which brought about this legal action. She is a widow and native of Mobile, Alabama who graduated from Mobile County Training School in 1943. She is a great grandmother and has been a law abiding citizen who lives a very wholesome life.” He also said while his client is in fairly good health, he hopes the stress and strain of litigation does not cause her any medical consequences.

In closing Mr. Finley noted that GEICO’s unfair claims practices have seemed to coincide with GEICO’s significant increase in advertising for their insurance products. “You can’t watch TV for 10 minutes without seeing a Caveman or a stack of money promoting GEICO products.” He summarized this observation as follows: “Maybe GEICO should re-direct some of their advertising dollars to fair claim payments so an 83 year old great grandmother who gets rear-ended by a GEICO insured can avoid having to be in the middle of a lawsuit.”

NOTE: Because of pending litigation, the name of the client has been omitted._______________________________

For general release: October 21, 2009

For more information on this matter, please contact Mr. Karlos Finley at 251 433-7766, or the GEICO claims representative on this matter: Rachel Collins at 478 621-1564, GEICO claim number:020816433010105003.

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Boteler, Finley & Wolfe, Attorneys

Committed to helping insurance claimants and injury victims and their families for over thirty years.

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The attorneys at Boteler, Finley & Wolfe have been helping people and small businesses in our community with insurance claims for over 30 years. Their work has helped thousands of claimants and victims of motor vehicle collisions. If you need information about an insurance claim or a personal injury matter, we'd like to help you. Our web site, http://www.bfw-lawyers.com/ is Alabama's "most comprehensive insurance claim web site." It contains specific information for insurance claimants and resource centers to help insurance claimants. Our auto-crash claims resources provide victims with lots of information about auto-crash claims. It also provides victims ordering or download information for our numerous free publications. In addition to our quarterly newsletter, we see this blog as another way to reach out and help insurance claimants, auto-negligence victims and consumers. We will make every attempt to keep this blog informative and entertaining. Thank you for visiting our blog site and your feedback and comments are always welcome. Mark Wolfe

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